Stream halves losses

The company improved turnover by 5% to £3.85m during the six months to 30 June and more than halved its pretax loss to £210,000. It retained £1.24m in cash at the end of the period which, when coupled with "the prospect of ongoing cash generation", is expected to be sufficient for its needs.

By concentrating on more profitable activities such as content, the company has been able to step away from Talk Telecom, which had been allowing third parties to transmit telephony traffic across its network for little reward. However, Stream will retain the network to carry its own traffic.

Sales declined from £2.23m to £1.29m at Talk Telecom, supporting its decision to restructure the unit and focus on higher margin operations, served by its Stream Live Services and Stream Media content divisions

These content units delivered a 78% increase in sales to £2.56m for the first-half. Stream Live Services primarily offers live psychic and astrology advice, with "considerable success", while Stream Media provides content for mobile phones and interactive digital television.

The company claims that Stream Media is now the "key provider" of SMS chat to Vizzavi UK and ITV Teletext. It focuses on the "proven areas" of chat and dating, and revenues at this division are said to be "very strong" during the first two months of the second-half. The company expects Stream Media to become profitable on a monthly basis by the end of the year.

Speaking about the group as a whole, Stream executive chairman Gordon Robson said: "We have seen an improving trend in loss/profit before tax on a monthly basis and this trend has continued into the second-half of the year. Trading since the end of June has been very encouraging."

Robson added that he expect to see "accelerated growth in both revenue and operating profit during the rest of the year and into 2003".

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